Chapter 723: Unworthy to Be a Child of the Zhai Family
"Back then, the old master joked with me that his experience of rearing pigs in rural areas was quite useful. If he reared two piglets, they would not be lazy. If you have two children, they will strive to be the best. Zhai Hua, without Zhai Sheng and his good performance in the army, do you think you will be able to be promoted to battalion commander with the Zhai family's help?" Zhai Yaohui stared at Zhai Hua, his gaze sharp and piercing like the eagle. Zhai Hua has nowhere to hide.
Zhai Hua might be the child of the Zhai family, but she was lazy from a tender age.
Old Master Zhai had noticed that and had talked to Zhai Yaohui and his wife about it.
Old Master Zhai felt that Zhai Hua was a girl and she should be pampered like a girl.
If Zhai Hua was interested in the army in the future, they would not stop her from joining the army. They should not stop her from developing her interests just because of her gender.
Similarly, if Zhai Hua was not interested in the army, they would allow her to choose the path that she was interested in by herself.
Thankfully, Miao Jing gave birth to a boy thereafter. The Zhai family pampered Zhai Hua even more while Zhai Sheng had to bear the responsibility of taking care of the Zhai family.
Although he was the younger brother, as a man, he had to lighten Zhai Hua's load and take on more responsibilities.
The strange thing was that, after Zhai Sheng joined the family, Zhai Hua's personality changed. She was still as lazy as before, but she would strive to work harder.
Since a young age, Zhai Sheng was particularly interested in the military and the army. He liked to spend time in the army and familiarize himself with the people in the army. They were close to him and would call him Younger Brother Zhai.
When Zhai Sheng began to show his talent and passion for the army, Zhai Hua, who did not want to lose out, began to spend her time in the army as well and grew to be interested in army life.
Zhai Hua was two years older than Zhai Sheng. Thus, she joined the army earlier than him.
Before Zhai Sheng joined the army, Zhai Hua did not have any remarkable performance in the army. But she was not among the bottom few either.
Old Master Zhai and Zhai Yaohui did not feel the need to push Zhai Hua to work hard as they felt that it was more important if Zhai Hua was happy.
After Zhai Sheng joined the army, he became famous among the recruits because of his outstanding performance. Zhai Hua, who did not wish to be outshone by him, unleashed her full potential and performed much better than before.
Old Master Zhai and Zhai Yaohui understood that Zhai Hua was pushing herself to the limits to be better than Zhai Sheng.
They encouraged such healthy competition.
However, now that Zhai Hua accused him of being biased and favoring boys over girls, Zhai Yaohui had no other choice but to rake up the past. "Your performance is not as good as Zhai Sheng's, yet you accuse your grandpa and me of not valuing you and that we favor boys over girls? Zhai Hua, ask yourself, how have we been treating you? Are you blind in the eyes and blind at heart?"
This was not the first time that Zhai Hua heard such words. Zhai Sheng had told her the same words in the past.
Zhai Hua was not as good as others, yet she pushed the blame on her family for favoring boys over girls and valuing Zhai Sheng instead of her.
"Old Master Zhai brought up Zhai Sheng and you. Before Zhai Sheng was born, you were the only grandchild in the family. Old Master showered you with all his love and attention for two years. When Zhai Sheng was born two years later, he was not able to take away the two years of dedicated love and attention that Old Master gave you. Both of you have been brought up by the old master. Are you sure that gender is the only difference between the two of you?"
Initially, Zhai Yaohui did not like the fact that Qiao Nan came from a humble background. However, since Qiao Nan was hardworking and strove for excellence, he was willing to give implied consent to Zhai Sheng and Qiao Nan.
Now that there was Wei De, Zhai Yaohui was very satisfied with Qiao Nan.
Ever since Qiao Nan started to be in a relationship with Zhai Sheng, she had never caused any trouble to Zhai Sheng or the Zhai family. On the contrary, Qiu Chenxi made trouble for Qiao Nan on several occasions because of Zhai Sheng.
After being with Qiao Nan, it had never affected Zhai Sheng's performance in the army.
As for Zhai Hua, ever since she was with Wei De, she became too radical in her way of thinking. She was not willing to put in any effort but kept feeling that she had been shortchanged.
In comparison, Qiao Nan was definitely much better than Wei De.
Without comparison, there would be no harm done.
Now that Wei De had created such a big mess, he failed to leave a good impression on the Zhai family. On the contrary, he left a bad impression and made Qiao Nan look good in front of the Zhai family instead.
"I... I don't accept it!" Zhai Hua gritted her teeth. "He is a man, and I am a woman. I won't admit that I am not as good as him in other aspects, but in terms of physical fitness, I am not as good as him." One needed to have strong physical abilities when carrying out missions.
"If you keep using the fact that you are a female as an excuse, Zhai Hua, let me tell you, you are unworthy to be a child of the Zhai family!" All those talks about gender and physical abilities were all excuses!
"So be it!" Zhai Hua was stubborn. She knew that, to her grandpa and everyone else, she could not be compared to Zhai Sheng.
She was indeed not as outstanding as they had expected. Even without what happened with Wei De, she supposed everyone would feel that she was unworthy of being a child of the Zhai family.
"Stop it." Miao Jing was anxious. The argument grew more and more heated. It seemed never-ending.
Miao Jing darted a look at Zhai Sheng, hinting at him to step in and mediate.
From the bits and pieces of the conversation, she understood that Hua Hua had a boyfriend who was from the army and he came from humble family background. Not only that, he seemed to have gotten into trouble in the army and Hua Hua had to clean up the mess for him.
Miao Jing disapproved of the current situation.
She had her reasons for not agreeing to her children to date someone whose social status was too far apart from them.
Everyone would have relatives. Among them, there might be some who were more troublesome and would stir up trouble.
Even Miao Jing herself had encountered such incidents. Thankfully, the other party had not done anything that was way overboard and she never saw him again. As such, she gradually forgot about what had happened in the past.
Hua Hua was different. Her boyfriend was the cause of trouble. Needless to say, his relatives would be similar as well.
Zhai Sheng had calmed himself down. He looked as if he did not overhear Zhai Hua's words.
Zhai Hua was anxious and uneasy at the calm and peaceful expression on Zhai Sheng's face. "Dad, now that things have developed to this state, it is useless to say further. We should think about how to resolve this so as to minimize the impact."
What Zhai Sheng meant was that Zhai Hua was beyond reasons now, only having Wei De in mind. No matter what they said, she would not be able to take them in.
Instead of wasting their time and efforts, they should work to resolve the problem at hand.
"What are your thoughts on this?" Zhai Yaohui calmed down slightly. At least, he could rely on his son. "The political commissar is waiting for our phone call."
"We will do as per what you told the political commissar on the phone." Zhai Sheng did not have any slight hesitation. He no longer needed to waste any effort on this.